Prize!

I won a prize, people.

You don't know how cool this is.

I never win anything. Ever.

Yet, a few days ago, I won. I got one of the two prizes AmyDe offered to celebrate her first blogiversary - hurrah!!

The prize - which is actually plural, prizes, arrived today. Or maybe yesterday - we didn't check our mail until today. Anyway. Here's the really lovely hand-sewn prizes I received from the very generous Amy (sewn prizes is particularly cool, since I can't sew my way out of a pillowcase):



This is a zippered pouch, perfect for notions



And a smaller pouch, perfect for my cell phone, which is really nice because without it my husband was always walking off with my phone by mistake, since they're identical.



Tissue holder - and I'm very big on carrying tissues everywhere I go, so this will get a lot of use.



And these super-cool notecards. Each one as a word in the bottom right corner: captivate, bless, charming, pleasure, admire, beautiful. This is such a nice idea. I'm thinking about how there's a person I know that each of these words evokes for me, and what a cool thing to send each of those people a card, you know?

So ignore the title of Amy's blog and go visit it - and congratulate her on her blogiversary! Thank you, Amy!!

It's been a good day all around: today was also the day I was finally able to try out the first of three candles I ordered from the Dame Candle Company (yes, as advertised on Cast-On!). I always get headaches from traditional scented candles, although I love the idea of them. So when I heard about these soy candles that have beautful but non-threatening scents, I had to try them. I ordered three, in "wild spruce," "cool water," and "lavender sage." They came really fast, arriving several days ago (and pictured on this blog along with my Mrs. Beetons, for those who notice that kind of thing) - so fast, in fact, that the note in the package said that they'd just been poured and would work better if I let them cure until the 22nd. So we waited anxiously until today, and finally tried out the spruce candle. It's everything Brenda said it would be - beautiful but subtle, very natural-smelling with no chemically nastiness that brings on headaches. And it really does clean up much easier than petroleum-based wax candles - I dipped my finger tip into the liquid candle to pick up a fleck of burnt wick, and the soy wax left on my finger just wiped right off cleanly.



I can't wait to try lavender sage, actually, as that's the one I'm most excited about - what a brilliant combination of scents.

Tune in next time for the conclusion of UFO August for this knitter...